“Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.”

The best advice is not to write what you know, it’s to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best—write the story you want to read.Whenever you’re at a loss for what move to make next, just ask yourself, 'What would make a better story?'

Write the Book, You want to Read

"Fake it ’til you make it."First, you have to figure out who to copy. Who to copy is easy. You copy your heroes—the people you love, the people you’re inspired by, the people you want to be. Do not copy from only one hero... copy from all the heroes that you love.Second, you have to figure out what to copy. Examine where you fall short. What’s in there that makes you different? That’s what you should amplify and transform into your own work.

Don't Wait until Ready

“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” - This the quote of Steve Jobs. But he may be misquoted it from "Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal" by Pablo Picasso who was rephrasing Igor Stravinsky.But may the original one is T. S. Eliot’s dictum: “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal."The origin of this quote itself is an example of great artists stealing.

Great Example

There’s only one not-so-secret formula that the author knows: Do good work and share it with people.<ul><li>Step 1: Wonder at something.</li><li>Step 2: Invite others to wonder with you. You should wonder at the things nobody else is wondering about.</li></ul>

Do Good Work and Share 

<h3>...It’s the Only Way to Get Work Done.</h3><h3></h3><h3>A day job puts you in the path of other human beings. The worst thing a day job does is take time away from you, but it makes up for that by giving you a daily routine in which you can schedule a regular time for your creative pursuits.</h3><h3></h3><h3>The solution is really simple: </h3><ul><li>Figure out what time you can carve out, what time you can steal, and stick to your routine. Do the work every day, no matter what.</li><li>Get a calendar. Fill the boxes. Don’t break the chain.</li></ul>

Be Boring

“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”

"Everybody is inspired by somebody."Instead, chew on one thinker—writer, artist, activist, role model—you really love. Study everything there is to know about that person. Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them. Repeat this as many times as you can. Climb up the tree as far as you can go. Once you build your tree, it’s time to start your own branch.Go deeper than anybody else—that’s how you’ll get ahead.

Nothing is Original

“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”

“You have to dress up for the job you want, not the job you have, and you have to start doing the work you want to be doing.”

If you’re out of ideas -<ul><li>Take time to mess around. </li><li>Get lost. </li><li>Wander. </li></ul>You never know where it’s going to lead you.If you have two or three real passions, don’t feel like you have to pick and choose between them. Don’t discard. Keep all your passions in your life.Don’t worry about unity—what unifies your work is the fact that you made it.

Take time to Wander

<h3>...The World is a Small Town.</h3><h3></h3><h3>"There’s only one rule I know of: You’ve got to be kind." —Kurt Vonnegut</h3><h3></h3><h3>The author recommends public fan letters. The Internet is really good for this. Write a blog post about someone’s work that you admire and link to their site. Make something and dedicate it to your hero. Answer a question they’ve asked, solve a problem for them, or improve on their work and share it online.</h3>

Be Nice

In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out, so they can concentrate on what’s really important to them."Creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out."

Creativity is Subtraction

Practical exercises, tools and concepts to help you develop and enhance your creative thinking 

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Books

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Health

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Communication

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Personal Development

Unlocking your Creative Potential

You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone. A manifesto for the digital age, Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side. When Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students in upstate New York, he shaped his speech around the ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out. The talk went viral, and its author dug deeper into his own ideas to create Steal Like an Artist, the book. The result is inspiring, hip, original, practical, and entertaining. And filled with new truths about creativity: Nothing is original, so embrace influence, collect ideas, and remix and re-imagine to discover your own path. Follow your interests wherever they take you. Stay smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring—the creative you will need to make room to be wild and daring in your imagination.

creativity

Creativity

You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone. A manifesto for the digital age, Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side. When Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students in upstate New York, he shaped his speech around the ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out. The talk went viral, and its author dug deeper into his own ideas to create Steal Like an Artist, the book. The result is inspiring, hip, original, practical, and entertaining. And filled with new truths about creativity: Nothing is original, so embrace influence, collect ideas, and remix and re-imagine to discover your own path. Follow your interests wherever they take you. Stay smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring—the creative you will need to make room to be wild and daring in your imagination.

I’m a writer who draws. I make art with words and books with pictures. Author of Steal Like An Artist and other bestsellers. Visit my website: http://austinkleon.com/

Creativity is Subtraction

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